Love Song for Dylan IV

fourth and latest piece in the series.

"Straight Americans need... an education of the heart and soul.  They must understand - to begin with - how it can feel to spend years denying  your own deepest truths, to sit silently through classes, meals, and church services while people you love toss off remarks that brutalize your soul. "

~Bruce Bawer, The Advocate, 28 April 1998



When did I lose that chance to be
the one to embrace
and satisfy
your need?

Was it when, as a child, you had to hide
your sudden erection
in the middle school locker room,
embarrassed and terrified
of discovery,
where forty savage fists could
turn to an insecure hailstorm
provoked by the slightest loose snicker
of fear?

Was it when the unsettling cootie plague
never abated,
but rather,

when that monstrous virus
swirled into vaginal
discharge
and earthy,
iron-scented tissue,

transformed into disgust?

Did your father take it away?
Did he drink and tower over you,
basted in flesh and violence?

At that moment did you learn to be
a woman,
to submit
when pressed into
wrestling or football,
wasted lessons
in masculinity -
a vain attempt to sculpt you
in the shaking image of an
unfulfilled man?

Or....

was it when
my trembling gametes
became one,
a pinspot zygote self-seed -
XX, defected, and lacking.

All that encrypted DNA,
spilled out everything,
all the vowels and consonants
I'd ever need
formed in

A

T


C
G

but only

sometimes
y.


 

Reviews

[Autumn Twilight]

You are amazing. I favorite part was the last part describing the DNA. You are so deep and wonderful with the way this is written. Thank you very much for sharing this with everyone.